A Dream Deferred
by Catapapalilar x3
Summary: One-shot. Wendy loves Edward, and is truly happy to be getting married to him. Even on this day, however, she can't help but remember the boy who never grew up, and how she left him behind in her childhood.


**Sorry to my Narnia fans. I'm much more successful when it comes to my one-shots. I'll get back to Narnia eventually, but let me spend the day in Neverland. ****This is just a short one-shot about Wendy moving on (despite me not actually wanting her to!) and her feelings on her wedding day.**

**I do not own Peter Pan, or any recognizable characters. I also do not own "A Dream Deferred," a poem written by Langston Hughes.**

* * *

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up  
like a raisin in the sun?  
Or fester like a sore-  
And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?  
Or crust and sugar over-  
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags  
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

* * *

"Oh, Wendy Darling, you are just a _vision _in white!"

"Truly glowing!"

"An absolute vision!"

Wendy Moira Angela Darling smiled at her friends, as they fluttered around her in glee. She took a deep breath in to calm her nerves, the butterflies flitting around her stomach. Today was her wedding day.

She was _not _marrying the hero of her story, but she did in fact love her soon-to-be husband. With all her heart. _Or nearly all of it, _she thought to herself. For there would always be a part of Wendy's heart and love which belonged to the boy who would never grow up. But he was now a lost dream.

There are many lost dreams out there, ones that people set aside, give up hope on, or, as in Wendy's case, outgrow. For most these dreams are those of fame that a child holds as their dearest wish. Wendy's dream was, as we know, much more serious.

For all of her childhood, and even that point of life between childhood and adulthood, Wendy dreamt that Peter Pan would return to her. _Maybe I've been falling asleep too early- I shall stay up later, _was first her reason for not giving up hope. When that failed, her mother began discovering her sleeping on the window seat with the curtains billowing in the breeze of the open window. Wendy fought tooth and nail to prevent her mother from banning this habit, despite the worried declarations of illness and weather. She cried for nearly a week when her father boarded up the window, until finally he conceded to her tears, if only to "stop that infuriating howling," as he put it.

Wendy was only twelve when she went on her adventure to Neverland. She slept beside the window until she was fourteen, and refused to shut it until she was sixteen. Still, Wendy had yet to latch the window at night, ignoring her mother and father's protests about thieves. Wendy loved Peter Pan, and she could not give up her dream.

This changed on her eighteenth birthday. Wendy mourned the loss of her childhood on this day, rather than celebrating her first monumental step into adulthood. This was the day Wendy set aside her dream. She began to live in reality, although she still found herself longing for the obliviousness of hope.

Edward began to court Wendy when she was 19. He was her first beau, and coaxed her out of her dreamland little by little. And now, a year and a half later, she felt all that the romantics of the world believed a marriage should be based off of. So, as her friends exited in search of their own beaus, and Wendy's heart fluttered at the thought of Edward at the end of the aisle, a shadow of sadness crossed her face as she stared out the window. Every adult ought to take a moment to mourn the loss of their childhood, and Wendy had taken many.

Edward was her shoulder, her rock, her comfort, and her love. But Peter had always been her freedom. Edward never held Wendy back, but with Peter, Wendy had always felt as if he were propelling her forward. So Wendy stared out the window with the barest hint of longing.

* * *

After the ceremony, Wendy took another moment by the window in her new bedroom. Her husband waited for her, but she lingered by the window, her honey curls fluttering in the breeze of the summer night. She closed her eyes, and for just a moment, imagined she was flying. And then her fantasy was over. She closed the window, and blew out a candle.

After a moments hesitation, she raised her hand and latched the window. She glanced out the window, finding that ever important star in the clear night sky, and then turned away from her childhood. She smiled at her husband, who looked back at her with a warm understanding. She took his offered hand and accepted womanhood, with only a tinge of regret.

_Oh Peter... Forgive me for growing up._


End file.
